My genealogy research diary. What changed, where, sometimes even why.
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Friday, 28 August 2009

28th: Continuing in update mode

My main web pages have been fully reloaded, others will follow as time permits.

Full set of BAIN dna results now in. Too early to tell if we have an accurate DNA signature for the line of John BAIN (married Catherine GRAY) as there are no matches to other tested BAIN families (see full BAIN dna project).
We only have one representative for our BAIN line and would very much like a second line to be represented to confirm this dna signature.

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Saturday, 15 August 2009

15th: BAINs

Bobby's preliminary dna results are in, so the DNA Projects Portal site now includes the first BAIN kit, yet another of my main lines represented.
Way too early days to say where that will lead, but no immediate matches to others in the project already.

See also the other DNA project diaries to keep track of what's changed there, mainly the FAIRBAIRN one as several pedigrees have been added over time, and more results are now in, adding to the jigsaw of the Borders FAIRBAIRNs.

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Monday, 8 June 2009

8th: One less OAG

A descendant of David and Johnina (BAIN) OAG has found me, and provided some updates for her branch of the family (many thanks Lindsay).
This revived my interest in attempting to verify, yet again, exactly how many children Johnina actually had.
I have been told 13 survived out of 22, and have (had) 22 names/dates, but I haven't managed to verify 3 of them. This latest contact makes me think that John born 8 Mar 1910 is one and the same as Jackie supposedly born 15 Mar 1911 (unverifed), especially when you realise that Hugh was verifed as born 15 May 1911 (bdm 43/145) and the only John reg. 1911 in Wick was 43/74, so unlikely to be a twin. The clincher for me being that Jackie died 1961 and the only death registration that matches is a John of the right age. So, my version of the family has shrunk by one child, and I'm still trying to verify the births of a Christina, supposedly married to a James someone, and of Janet supposedly married to John someone.

Any advance on 21 for poor Johnina, and married names for Matilda, Christina, Janet?

Bobby also provided some updates to descendants of John and Elizabeth (CLYNE) BAIN.

Of all of the above very little will be visible on the web pages, apart from the BAIN chart, which has been updated.

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Friday, 17 April 2009

17th: Addenda - BAINs for a change

Met up with one of my NZ BAIN "cousins" today for the first time. Apart from it being good to actually meet, it was also rather interesting to find out how we were connected to his wife via a different branch of Caithness BAINs.
A couple of years ago they had met one of her relations at Spittal. Donald had mentioned blacksmiths and McBEATH connections, so I assumed it would be the South Calder BAINs, and so it turned out. John BAIN (1799-1882) who married Helen McBEATH, whose family connect several times over to my/our BAINs in the GRAY and TAYLOR families. Further details on those that connect to my forest can be found on my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson.

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Wednesday, 1 April 2009

1st: New dna project

The passing of Sinton WIGHT, mentioned on the 26th, made me realise that if I want to find dna representatives of most of my main families to find more links by using the science now available, I'd better make sure I find participants. But for WIGHTs, firstly a project was needed as none currently existed.
A WIGHT Surname DNA project now exists, and even has its first participant, not one of mine, but a transfer from the National Geographic Genographic Project, with very early Massachusetts WIGHTs from England (and an unusual haplotype).

Check the FAIRBAIRN DNA Project diary for some exciting updates. In a few weeks time we may finally find out whether or not Ed's and my theory about the John in New York whose father was a Walter FAIRBAIRN of Roxburghshire, is or isn't, a son of Walter and Agnes (ROBISON) FAIRBAIRN.
Depending on the degree of (mis)match, we may yet need another participant from the NY line, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, as it has taken so long to find a willing taker. Fingers crossed.

And yet more Caithness BAINs. Stuart has contacted me, presumably having seen the blog entries about the Manitoba BAINs the other day. His relations, although he's in England.
Must be something in the spring air over the other side of the world at the moment, waking everyone up.

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Tuesday, 31 March 2009

31st: McADIE Yes? No? BAINs yes.

Contacted by Katherine about her William McADIE, wondering if he might be the William son of George and Elizabeth (ROSIE) McADIE in my database.
Jury still out. I don't have anything certain about this William beyond 1841, although he may be the mystery, unidentified William in Victoria, Australia witnessing assorted events in his brother Robert's family.
I suggested that possibly her William was the son of the George, son of William McADIE and Susanna MULLICAN, but a descendant of that family pointed out that his William had died in Forres in 1865. Back to the drawing board, so just maybe a farmer's son did become an outdoors HM Customs Officer in England after all.

A lot of people obviously think it's time I was dragged away from Borders DNA projects and did some more Caithness research, or even some closer to home.

Next one out of the woodwork was an email from a much closer BAIN cousin who was wondering if I was the person he was looking for - had been in contact with his sister some years ago, had something to do with the Kapiti Genealogy Society. Yes on both counts. Back when I last tried to find him, no wonder I couldn't find him where I expected to in the Sth Island, he was living much much closer, just over the hill, in the same town, probably no more than 10 mins away from where I used to live!
Time to drag out Nana's old photo album and see what I can find in it for him for when we meet up in a week or two.

How I found his sister, and why, is one of my favourite "it's a small world" stories.
Several years ago a BAIN researcher I was in contact with in Australia decided that a quest he'd been given was in the too hard basket.
"Find my WW11 BAIN penpal in NZ". I think I was given a forename, but that was it.
I had one in my database of an age to be around at the time concerned, a 2nd? cousin of mine I'd never contacted, but knew where she was. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I decided to ring her and at the very least get a bit of the BAIN tree updated. However, it turned out that yes, she was the penpal concerned, and had vivid memories of sending off food parcels to London. End result, penpals back in contact and my tree a tad more accurate in the family of John BAIN & Margaret McMILLAN.
Donald advises that he and his wife were in Caithness a couple of years ago, and that his wife also has BAIN connections from near Halkirk. Curiousity aroused, but will have to wait until we meet. Apparently a different lot, with McBEATH connections at Spittal.

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Sunday, 29 March 2009

29th: Manitoba MANSONs

As a result of yesterday's findings, I've updated the BAIN descendant chart to show where these MANSONs fit.
WorldConnect db LornaHenderson updates yet to come.
Had to laugh at the effect of a Scottish accent on a Canadian census enumerator.
James and Catherine Isabella (BAIN) MANSON's son George Gordon was enumerated as Church G MANSON.
Looks like one daughter (Jane Elizabeth) died tragically young (10), and that the eldest daughter Ellen Alice, married an Edward BOYES.
The above George may or may not have married an Eva ROBINSON, who also died young (22), but I don't have enough evidence for that leap as yet.

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28th: Catherine found, family rumour solved

Some years ago I unravelled some discrepancies about a couple of Catherine BAINs, one the dtr of James BAIN and Helen SUTHERLAND, the other the dtr of Donald BAIN and Maggie TAYLOR.
The latter died 1904, the former couldn't be found in Scotland.
I think I've found her.

While checking off some of the British Guianian FAIRBAIRNs who had emigrated to Manitoba, I strayed off into checking off what else I hadn't already checked against the Manitoba BDMs, and against the 1916 Canadian Census, available again now. (Interesting indexing on the FAIRBAIRNs, they were indexed as FAUBARIN, with a birthplace that clearly read British Guiana, but was indexed as British Columbia, took me a while to find them!).

In checking off the Manitoba BDMs, I re-discovered the family of James and Catherine Isabella MANSON in Brandon, whose 1891 marriage was indexed with Katherine as BARIE.
However, today's checking of a son's birth clearly showed her as Catherine Isabella BAIN, and a census showed her as born Jul 1866.
This just happens to match the data for Catherine, dtr of James and Helen (SUTHERLAND) BAIN. Her husband James MANSON's sister Elizabeth married Donald BAIN, Catherine's brother, and descendants of Donald and Elizabeth (MANSON) BAIN had family letters that indicated a connection between the families, but didn't know what it was.
QED, a successful conclusion to the day.

Decided to branch out in my DNA studies, and add in another of my main research lines. I've applied to set up a WIGHT project. The pages are rather preliminary, as FamilyTree DNA haven't yet approved it as a project, but none currently exists, and it doesn't seem to be claimed by WHITE or WIGHTMAN as an alternate name.

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Saturday, 21 February 2009

21st: Rosie update

Thanks to Helen, a 4th cousin in BC, the BAIN/ROSIE family has had a few snippets added. I took the opportunity to remove a stray David that had snuck into the family from another researcher as I cannot, as yet, find any corroboration he belonged to George ROSIE and Isabella BAIN.
Most of the updates will be behind the scenes into the realms of the living, and
thus not online.
In the process I received a cute picture of the 2 yr old Lucas, 7th great grandson of John BAIN, who shared his fair hair and blue eyes.

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been reloaded.
This update was for any snippets on the above BAIN/ROSIEs, but also to bring the family of Donald McFADEN and Jessie SINTON across from my db LornaPotential into the rellies, even if we're unlikely to prove where she connects.

The BAIN and SINTON descendant charts have also been refreshed.

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Saturday, 14 February 2009

13th: Caithness gets some overdue attention

The flurry of activity on the Caithness GRAY family as a result of Bobby finding and sharing his updated info on Ann SINCLAIR nee GRAY shows that several notes to myself several years ago to investigate whether or not Catherine GRAY's sisters married x and y have been proved to be valid hunches.
We've done a lot of digging and swapping our finds over the last couple of days.
Another sister also survived well into civil registration times, living to age 93, Barbara GRAY, married James McGREGOR, lived at Baderyrie, Latheron.
That leaves the fates of sisters Elizabeth and Isobel GRAY to be determined.
For some time I'd wondered if Isobel was the one who married John SUTHERLAND, but that isn't the case. However, investigation of this did lead me to correct what I had on that family on my WorldConnect database LornaPotential, which will show these updates shortly (her parents weren't Alexander GRAY and Margaret SUTHERLAND, but David GRAY and Christian BAIN);
Newly connected surnames for my GRAY family now include: GUNN, more SINCLAIRs, MUNRO, BAIKIE, McLAREN; Places are: Thurso; Mid Clyth; Stemster; Lybster; Duffus (Moray); Charlestown (Little Dunkeld, Perthshire);
Mysteries: What happened to Mary SINCLAIR and Alexander GUNN, married 1860 Lybster, appear in 1861 census at Mid Clyth, then vanish.

Also did some work on the Tongside GRAY families, whom I'm sure do connect in somehow, if only I knew how/where: Alexander & Margaret (SUTHERLAND) GRAY, who lived next to my William & Isabella (MANSON) GRAY, as did their respective descendants over the years.

Both Rootsweb WorldConnect databases are in the process of being updated, so use these links to access them until the indexing catches up over the next 2-3 days: LornaHenderson, LornaPotential.

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Wednesday, 11 February 2009

11th: Seen it all now

I don't yet know how accurate the Ancestry Census transcription I've just seen is, but I've just found a Janet SINCLAIR enumerated with an occupation of "deceased daughter"!
This being part of the investigations into the newfound GRAY twigs that Bobby put me onto. I don't think she's the Janet I'm looking for however.
The family being researched is that of Ann, dtr of Donald GRAY and Janet SUTHERLAND, and sister of the Catherine GRAY who married John BAIN, married a James SINCLAIR. Bobby found her 1857 death certificate and I'm fossicking to see what else I can find.
So far the extended family includes McGREGORs, and another SINCLAIR family.

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10th: Revival of interest in BAINs

A descendant of Elizabeth BAIN's husband James SUTHERLAND's first wife has found my web pages, and suddenly discovered he has a whole heap of BAIN relations as well as the SUTHERLAND ones he knew about.
Good to hear from you Tim.

Found a conversation on Rootschat which I'd missed, re Jessie SINTON and Donald McFADEN. I'm fully convinced that Jessie is one of my Southdean SINTONs, but am at a loss to see exactly where she would fit. Good to "meet" you Bev.

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Monday, 18 August 2008

Aug 17, 2008: Meet John BAIN & Sinclair MANSON

The newfound BAIN descendants have progressed enough for it to be time for a update to my main WorldConnect db: LornaHenderson.

And with all this activity on the BAINs I thought it was also long overdue for my BAIN 2*great-grandparents to be out on the web, so meet Sinclair MANSON and John BAIN. They've taken rather longer than a lot of the more recent finds, it being a fact of my genealogical life that my much older research isn't as cleanly documented, so each bit I touched meant I had to tidy up several others!

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Sunday, 17 August 2008

Aug 16, 2008: More BAIN updates

BAIN chart(s) updated with where I've got to so far with Livy's info and related research.
Descendants scattered from one coast of America to the other.

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Thursday, 14 August 2008

Aug 14, 2008: Who is Elizabeth McKAY?

Still plugging away at all the wonderful info Livy has shared on the New Jersey branch of the BAIN tree.
In the meantime, I've added a BAIN letter and the related people to the Originals sub section of my web pages.
Another Tasmanian DAWE twig has found me (Hi Phil), so look for some further updates shortly.

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Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Aug 11, 2008: Johanna remembered

Yet more work on the James BAIN/Helen ANDREW portion of the thicket.
Descendant chart updated, and more importantly, a page added for Johanna. Nice pic ta Livy. Few more twigs and investigations to come yet.

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Sunday, 10 August 2008

Aug 9, 2008: Back to Caithness

Amazing what an unexpected find does to spur on further research to fill gaps. Several more twigs on the James BAIN/Helen ANDREW portion of the BAIN tree. Most of the charts updated with work to date, more to come - the daughters turn out to have married: SUTHERLAND, FALCONER, MOWAT, GUNN

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Friday, 8 August 2008

Aug 8, 2008: Caithness to New Jersey?; More Ontario FAIRBAIRNs

Where does the time go? Mostly been working on Ontario FAIRBAIRN and related families, in no particular order: GRIEVE, WINDOVER, HUFF, COUGHLIN, HUDSON, RAYCRAFT, ASSELSTINE, FRENCH, FITCHETT, PAGE, VADER.
FAIRBAIRN descendants chart updated.

Sidetracked from FAIRBAIRNs to investigate Livy's theory that her x-greats grandmother Johanna/Jean KERR nee BAIN, d/o of a James and Ellen BAIN, just might be Johanna, d/o James BAIN and Helen ANDREW.
My initial worry was that if the age was right, she had emigrated to America as a 16/17 yr old - but with whom?
However, a 1924 letter from her younger sister Hannah in Wick, written to the American relations, clearly states that the sister didn't remember her as she had left so young, and I quickly found a dth cert of this Hannah, with the right address, that showed we had the right parents. As the letter also mentions Kate, implying she is Johanna and Hannah's sister, I presume Johanna emigrated with her elder sister.
This could well explain how I've not had much joy finding most of the girls in this family after about 1871.

Rootsweb WorldConnect db LornaHenderson updated (prior to this BAIN find). Also updated are the Rootsweb pages (after this BAIN find).

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Monday, 24 March 2008

Mar 24, 2008: Aberdeen to Portsmouth STEPHENSONs, new McDONALDs

Two postings in my Guestbook on the same day from newfound rellies, or at least since I last read it.
One had info on a new twig on the WIGHT/STEPHENSON line, which just happens to be the line where Harry and I have been chasing a mysterious Hugh STEPHENSON with dtr Margaret who married a John WIGHT, who may or may not have been the widower living in the same building in 1841 in the Fleshmarket, Edinburgh in 1841.
Hugh is highly likely to be the father of the Robert STEPHENSON who married Isabella WIGHT, so who on earth is John WIGHT, horse dealer, or is he just a complete coincidence?
The other was on the BAIN/SUTHERLAND line down from James BAIN's dtr Helen Sutherland BAIN who married George McDONALD. Good to know a bit more about that line.

Look forward to hearing more about both families.
WIGHT and BAIN descendant charts updated with interim findings.

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Sunday, 2 March 2008

Mar 2, 2008: Which William ROSIE?

Contacted by a ROSIE researcher on GenesReunited wondering if we had a match on William who married Margaret McADIE.
Her tree definitely showed a William of the right age and married to Margaret, but gave William's parents as Alexander ROSIE and Charlotta MANSON, whereas William's 1867 death cert says his parents are Alexander ROSIE and Elizabeth MANSON, so the jury is still out.
Mistake on death cert or another couple? At least one other tree (on WorldConnect) shows the same as her.
Nonetheless it did prompt me to check for a few more twigs, so now Elizabeth Jane, dtr of David Sinclair Wemyss McADIE & Margaret BAIN, has been found in 1901 with her husband William MacKAY and two daughters with a string of names each.

Assorted descendant charts updated: DAWE, ROWE, McADIE.

Also re-investigated MyHeritage, the site GenCircles morphed into.
Looks like they've fixed a few of the initial teething troubles, so have reloaded my basic BMD data there.
The smartmatching that was a good feature of GenCircles appears to be working.

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Saturday, 17 November 2007

Nov 16, 2007: Who is Lesley?

Back to the Manitoba BAINs, except the snippets I was checking off were actually their MANSON cousins in Brandon, plus an as yet unidentified Lesley, dtr of a George.

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Sunday, 14 October 2007

Oct 12 & 13th, 2007: Caithness connections

Mostly BAIN, and TAYLOR updates. Another two for the price of one job. With family info that a sister of George Manson Henderson BAIN was a unmarried postmistress of Thurso, I decided to eliminate the sisters by checking for marriages where I didn't already have one. Found Jane/Jean Henderson BAIN had married James GUNN (1919 Halkirk), then looked at the cert. above it, only to find it was another BAIN, one Daniel William BAIN. Who didn't initially ring bells but turned out to be from a different BAIN family (the Harpsdale BAINs, George the stonemason who married into my TAYLOR family). I'd not traced this family much beyond 1881 until now. I've now found that one son, stone mason David, moved from Halkirk to Edinburgh, and dtr Violet helped keep the family surnames at a minimum by marrying a James MANSON (1909 Halkirk), not that he immediately looks connected to my Watten MANSONs.

Back to the Manitoba BAINs: still can't find Donald, James and George's emigration to Canada, followed by Alexander, but I now know Alexander can't have gone till after his 1923 marriage to Jane ROSIE, and that Donald said 1909 in the 1911 census. If I've found the right James in 1911 he thinks he came to Canada in 1911, which conflicts with family info that they came together, but with a fairly illegible birth month and year on the census I've really only got a near enough age and an occupation including CPR to go on.

James attestation papers show he married a Ruth Anna sometime before 1915, but the marriage doesn't appear in the Manitoba records that I've found.

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Sunday, 7 October 2007

Oct 7th, 2007: Buried civilisations

Tidy up day. Something I rarely seem to get round too is finishing each bit of research. Each new exciting find or contact interrupts the previous top of the pile. Years ago I read about someone's office desk being described as having buried civilisations at the bottom of the piles. I empathised.

HENDERSON/McGREGOR research interrupts today included a Guestbook message from one of the Argentinian RUNCIMANs who was looking for information on his gt grdfather Robert Inglis (Peel) RUNCIMAN.

The British Hospital in Buenos Aires wanted to commemorate him as an early benefactor and didn't have much information. In his searches the gt grdson found my web site and sent me a lovely thank you.

Also received a query about a GUNN/BAIN marriage, which turned out not to be in one in my tree, but which meant Bella GUNN caught my eye, with an unknown birth and marriage date. Bella turns out to be Isabella Johan GUNN, and I found their marriage, not Halkirk where expected, but registered a bit further north, in Orkney.

And then there was another message in my Guestbook, continuing a correspondence about George Manson Henderson BAIN who emigrated from Caithness to Manitoba. Brenda helpfully pointed me in the direction of the Manitoba Government BDM indexes. Obviously privacy conscious there as not many of my Manitoba people fitted into the timeframes the indexes covered (100 yrs ago for births, 80 for marriages and 70 for deaths) but nonetheless there are a few more of the people who are online in my WorldConnect databases with dates that are either now verified or corrected.
Darned if I can find any record of George's immigration either side of the pond however. He must have swum, sometime between 1901 and 1916.

Oh well, back to checking/filing HENDERSON/McGREGOR correspondence to see what updates I might have missed.

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Friday, 14 September 2007

Sep 13, 2007: Back to BAINs & no luck with LUCOCK

Hope to get Thomas SCOTT on the web soon as I've had fun chasing assorted Cumberland SCOTT families around the records the last couple of days. No great conclusion re Eleanor's relationship to them though. Someone, somewhere might hold the key to where Eleanor fits in.

Also hope to get out an update to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson as there seems to have been a sudden rush of updates.

GenesReunited hot matches has put me in contact with another of the BAIN/SUTHERLAND/THOM descendants in Australia, so that's a few more dots on i's and t's crossed (how are you meant to write that, doesn't look right with "is" for plural of i!). Thank you Peter M., 4th cousin once removed. The BAIN chart has therefore had a few twigs added.

Received a reply from the LUCKOCK researcher, but dipped out on enough information to solve the Agnes Gair HENDERSON & Joseph LUCOCK marriage mentioned below, at least not without paying for a certificate anyway.

Linda H called my attention to the McGREGOR GenForum activity in response to one of her posts. Looks like we've been found by another HENDERSON descendant of Margaret H, sister to my James H. Not sure where as yet, but her husband is a descendant of James Addison McGREGOR.

Update: digging around from the hints on GenForum and the fact that Canada might be a good place to find James, I came up trumps as he started off in Ontario where I can access BDM data online via Ancestry, and there were a couple of dths in the British Columbia index too so the HENDERSON chart has a few extra twigs under James McGREGOR now.

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